by Jay Morris
When the rifles stopped and the cannons ceased, not a single Da-Nah was left alive. He had lost one tank, its crew, and eleven ground troops were dead and twenty-two more wounded, including who would forever be known as England’s Fighting Queen. But as of that very moment the alien invasion in England was over.
Day 56, Pelican Island
The Carl Weir appeared only a few minutes after the end of the battle. Our two were the only V’s that were not burning or shot full of holes. The leaders of the resistance, human and underling came out to meet us. Irven Barnes, Hernando Velaquez, and two others followed Amy, Karen and I into The Diane West. They seemed impressed with the giant thing so we gave them the nickel tour. After that we all sat in the big conference room. We were soon joined by some of the Galveston underling and some of ours. Tucker had been cleaned up, was led in and stood silently to one side.
“What’s his story?” Barnes asked.
“It’s a long story” Amy said sadly, “and we have other things to discuss.”
We started by telling them about the US Army’s ambush and their unfortunate fate, but to tell the truth I was glad they were dead, they had killed two very kind and decent people for no reason. We told them about burying Doc Mary and Ethan and how we got Tucker dressed, that way he wouldn’t have to kill anyone or anything in his boxers. Barnes looked at Tucker who didn’t seem to know we were there at all.
“Yep” I said, “and he was shot three times doing it.”
“Bullshit.” One of them barked.
Barnes said, “Where are his wounds then?”
“Healed over in six hours, muscle and tissue replaced in another four. If you look carefully you can see some patches of skin that are slightly paler than the rest of him.”
Karen said as she rose and opened Tuckers shirt to show them.
“Incredible.” Barnes stared at him.
“I saw him attack and defeat a Defender only using two knives.” Hernando said.
After another ten minutes of us trying to explain things we really didn’t understand we moved on to explain that the underling were converging here, and while they were arriving in V’s (vehicles) like ours, some were taking circuitous routes in order to pick up some underling who were on foot.
“Why here?” one of them asked.
“Not sure but I think they want to migrate to the Northwest, they want to make a colony there. But from what Lucy and Gina have said…”
“Um, excuse me, but who?” Barnes asked.
“Sorry, Gina and Lucy are two little girls who dream-share with our underling.”
“Oh of course”, he said, “We have some kids that do that too.”
“Well, they seem to think that the underling consider us, well, not just equals but family.”
Hernando chuckled “Yeah we got that impression too.”
We talked with the underling, they explained that they would help the Aggressives, but the Vs belonged to the underling and to the Aggressives they adopted. They would help the Aggressives build their own Vs that would allow humanity to repair the damage done by the Da-Nah and by humanity before the Da-Nah arrived.
One of the men looked as if he were angry for some reason.
“Wait, the underling will not fight, correct?” he said.
“True” I said, “but they have other resources” and I pointed to Tucker.
“Easy Conner, we don’t have to go there, the underling have shown themselves to be the best friends we have.” Barnes corrected his man. The whole time the underling just sat there just as expressionless, just as impassive as ever.
It was then that Jodi made her appearance, junior in her arms, which caused the men to jump, they had not realized that the underling had made every effort to rescue infant Da-Nah whenever possible. Of course Jodi went on about things in her dream world and even tried to burp junior which he endured without comment. Barnes and Velaquez stared at her in amazement as she told Hernando that he was actually her uncle Clarence and then told Barnes that she would have a pound and a half of smoked turkey.
Amy rested her chin in her hands, leaning on her elbows, and explained that Jodi was a few tools short of a workshop, to which Jodi explained that no matter how many times she called the cops those street walkers always came back, while she nodded in Amy’s direction who just rolled her eyes, nodded and raised her hand to make sure everyone knew who Jodi was talking about.
That was when Lucy and Gina appeared having come from The Carl Weir,
“Yea! A party!” Gina yelled.
“Yea! A tea party!” Lucy added as they ran into the room, suddenly something happened that no one anticipated, Tucker walked over to the girls and looked down at them.
“Gampa!” the girls squealed.
Tucker lowered himself to a squatting position and the girls wrapped their arms around him. After a moment he returned the pats and hugs. The girls broke free and each one took one of Tuckers hands,
“Gampa thinks he is tired now!” Gina said.
“Yes! Very, very, tired for a tea party!” Lucy thoughtfully explained.
They led Tucker from the room, Jodi and Junior following behind saying something about volunteering for a Methodist barbecue fund raiser. Which was when I noticed the underling who were gathered around the one with a com-pad. After a moment he stopped and handed it to me, on the display it said,
“Tucker pause. Tucker return. Tucker stop.
Tucker reset. Tucker return. Tucker stand.
Tucker stop. Tucker return. Tucker reset.”
He took it back and entered a message and gave it back, it said
“Tucker damaged. Damage incomplete. Repair incomplete.”
Day 57, Equatorial Atlantic, 11:51 P.M.
“Permissive-Query Conjunctive (Vehicle-Da-Nah, Negation (Locative-Relative)) Quantity-Estimate”
“Query-Acknowledged Vehicle-Estimate (22)”
The Director sat down, scanned the roster on the display. Most of the best Directors, the ones most likely to resist, most likely to fight the monsters were dead. Here in the middle of the ocean a flotilla was gathering and to the untrained eye it would have been impressive but counting the twenty-two vehicles still on route there was a grand total of only one hundred and nine Da-Nah vehicles. One hundred and nine out of two thousand that had landed so very recently, and those two thousand vehicles that were full of excited, eager settlers and technicians who were ready to work to make this planet Da-Nah. Now they were dead, all but the youngest siblings who have been stolen by the traitorous underling. In all only 1,327 free Da-Nah remained on this violent, damned world.
The Indigenous-Life-Aggressives seemed to relish death, they sacrificed themselves by the thousands, but they were as deadly as they were mad. The battles just grew in size and violence all around the planet, there was nowhere to turn, no respite for the Da-Nah. At least not until his technicians had finally got the satellite observation system working. They had finally learned how bad things were but they had found a place, and a plan. A place so remote that the Da-Nah could hide until they were rescued by the Nexus. Then the vile monsters would learn firsthand the righteous wrath of the Da-Nah. One of his technicians posted an update on the position of the coming vehicles. He rose and opened a broadcast communication channel,
“Statement-Factual Da-Nah-Vehicles-All Modification-Locative (1.23, 0.894 planetary reference) Chronal-delta-Precise (0.0)”
The Da-Nah vehicles rapidly approached the coast of the African nation of Gabon, they didn’t slow as they climbed the sandy beach, nor did they slow as the deserted town of Libreville was turned into powder. In moments they were forming a single line as they entered the jungle. They intentionally left the largest trees, they were trying to leave the smallest track. It was all part of the plan.
Day 58, Continued, Galveston Island
All morning long underling piloted V’s continued to arrive. Usually they carried one or two human passengers, but not always, by noon there were more V’s in one plac
e than I had ever seen. A total of thirty-six Vs, most were type 2s, just like ours but there was one type four, and two of the smaller type 1s. It would have been difficult to get a type 3 I suppose, since those were the family main unit. The type 1’s were machine shops and the type 4s were laboratories. Ours were in effect dormitories for technicians and underling as well as mobile warehouses.
Lucy, Gina, and Chase had found a friend in Marjorie and therefore by extension Hernando’s adopted daughter Lisa. I really didn’t understand it but apparently the more underling in a certain area there were, the more satisfying and restful dream-share was. In addition it did not seem that time passed at the same rate for the dream-sharers, days might pass in their dreams while just a few hours passed in our world.
It turned out that some difficulties were avoided because of this, the five children and the underling decided that there were extra Vs and that the underling could reassign some of their people and turn three type 2s over to the Galveston survivors. This went a long way in smoothing over the growing ‘underling envy’ some of the locals were beginning to feel.
Amy, Karen and I finally got the opportunity to spent time with Krista and baby Maverick. Krista was inconsolable and it was heart breaking to witness it. But Amy assured her that she and Maverick were our family now and that she didn’t have to worry about anything for the time being. Strangely enough, Jodi was actually very good with Krista, and Krista actually asked for her. Krista somehow made Jodi a little less nut-so and she didn’t seem to mind that Jodi was constantly cuddling Junior and talking to him in baby-talk.
I had to laugh when I realized that Junior was quite possibly the most spoiled Da-Nah ever. If she put him down, he was immediately begging to be picked up. In fact it seemed they were developing their own language for example *whir*whir*click*whir*whir*click meant he was sad and wanted attention. *snik*whir*buzz*hmm* meant he wanted food, which might be anything from potato peels to grass clippings or a green pine cone. Apparently Jodi didn’t find that odd at all since as she put it she was “a strict vegan who only eats meat once in a while.”
It was almost three in the afternoon when were called by one of Hernando’s people, it seems we had a visitor. We followed the young man to the causeway and found Irven, Hernando, some underling and two or three armed people facing off with two U.S. Army soldiers sitting in a jeep. When we walked up Irven signaled to the soldiers and the one in the passenger seat got out and walked over to us. My blood boiled and I grasped my rifle so hard that I thought I might crack the plastic forearm.
The man saluted,
“Greetings, I am Captain Daryll Compton, U.S. Army.”
“You the bastard who attacked us and killed two of us a couple of days ago?”
Karen’s voice was cold, just as angry as mine.
“Young lady, those men are dead I believe.”
Karen harrumphed and Amy stepped in to try and cool things off,
“Captain, what can we do for you?” she said.
“Yes Mam, President Thomas C. Burwell sends his regards.”
“Who?” Hernando asked.
“Burwell Sir, President Burwell, he was the highest ranking government official after the… well after.”
“Never heard of him” Mr. Barnes said.
“To be honest Sir, neither had I, but he is the real deal.”
“Well, what does he want?” Karen, who never minced her words, asked.
He cleared his throat then said,
“President Burwell, would like to appeal to your patriotism and your sense of morality and he asks you to surrender all alien vehicles over to his representatives.”
Karen laughed.
The Captain looked uncomfortable then said,
“And he demands that you surrender the terrorist and alien collaborator responsible for the deaths of sixteen U.S. Army personnel at check point alpha.”
This time it was Amy who laughed and she stepped foreward and poked him repeatedly in the chest to emphasize each word,
“Get. This. Straight. We. Don’t. Know. Or. Answer. To. Burwell. Or. Any. Other. S.O.B. Claiming. To. Be. King.”
The Captain stood still and took her commentary impassively. There was ten seconds of silence before the Captain smiled ever so slightly,
“Mam, it will be my extreme pleasure to inform the President of your response.”
Then he saluted briskly, winked at Karen which pissed me off, then turned and walked back to the jeep and got in, which started up, did a quick u-turn and quickly disappeared.
“That went well.” Hernando said.
“I thought so.” Irven added.
Day 58, South-East of Bonza-Kombe There were a number of long, narrow islands in the Ubangi River near Bonza-Kombe in what was once called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but instead of just plowing across them in typical Da-Nah manner, the convoy carefully maneuvered around them, traveling north, upstream against the strong current. About half way to Imezi the lead vehicle found a dry wash that cut sharply back towards Bonza-Kombe. They convoy made the turn and with their engines set at such a low power level that they were barely held aloft but also so low their track was practically indistinguishable from the dry bed.
They passed within a mile and a half of the ghost village of Bonza-Kombe, they followed the southerly course until a high ridge appeared that marked the western lip of a deep gorge several miles across. This was the place they had been looking for and the Director in the lead vehicle sent out a signal and the convoy began to break up and form into rows of 20 vehicles, side by side they were so close there was hardly any room to pass between them. Once so arranged the Da-Nah began to empty the vehicles of anything they could move whether they needed it or not. When the vehicles had been stripped a time delay program was initiated and the empty vehicles were sealed. After one twentieth of a planetary rotation the Da-Nah heard the engines begin to roar in a strange way, they stopped to watch the unprecedented action.
The vehicles engines had been set on maximum but the only motion was a slight rotation from side to side the way an Aggressive would crush an insect under their foot. But these machines were tremendously powerful and as they moved the very earth beneath them, the rocks, the sand, everything was pulverized. So many of these giant vehicles doing this at the same time was incredible, a huge cloud of sand and dust filled the valley. After one twenty-fifth of a planetary rotation the engines shut down. The fleet of vehicles was gone, buried under feet of powdered earth and stone.
Their vehicles were an extension of the power of the Da-Nah, a place where everything was designed for both efficiency and for the comfort of their occupants. Home, laboratory and factory all rolled into one. To abandon them was such a hurtful thing, that the colors of regret and shame were so bright it offended the eyes. But the scent of grief was worse, it made them nauseous and weak. If the Da-Nah could shed tears then this would have been the place, this would have been the time.
In a long thin line the Da-Nah began to walk into hiding, into a self-imposed exile. This was their only chance, they had to survive. They were Da-Nah.
Day 59, Fort Bragg, Office of the President
“Sgt. Major, listen I’ve read the report too. You don’t have to convince me. I trust Compton’s judgment and if he says these people aren’t traitors then I believe him.”
General Avett was pacing back and forth behind his desk while Sgt. Major Crook stood calmly on the other side.
“General, I am not trying to convince anyone of anything, I am just pointing out that those people in Galveston have been fighting our war for us.”
Sgt. Major Crook stepped a little close to the desk and slid the 8 by 10” photo towards the general. The picture showed the wreckage of the alien vehicles on Pelican Island. General Avett sat down and picked up the photo.
“Yea, I know Sgt. Major, I know. But, what about the roadblock team?”
“Come on General, call a spade a spade, you know as well as I do that was an ambush, hell o
ur own man says it was.”
“Well, what are we going to do?”
“Sir, you asking for my opinion?”
“I am Sgt. Major.”
“Then General, in that case I feel we should send Compton back in, make nice with the civies, let him find out what he can, and in the meantime, we try to keep a lid on Burwell.”
Avett leaned back in his chair for a minute then said
“Fine, get on the horn, talk to Compton, and tell him we want the skinny on the civies down there. Then you get to go in and tell Burwell that he still doesn’t have his pound of flesh.”
Sgt. Major Crook saluted
“Sir, aye, aye Sir.”
He grinned which made Avett chuckle,
“Get out of here you psycho jarhead.”
Day 59, Continued, Galveston
Captain Compton and his driver came back to Pelican Island around two that afternoon, he was wearing a side arm but that was all. His driver, who looked all of 19, was armed in the same manner. I followed the Captain around the camp, he talked and tried to make friends with several people. The people from Galveston seemed curious but that was about all. He made no effort to talk to me or Amy. He finally found his way to the V that Hernando’s people were settling into. He seemed interested in the underling, I heard him ask Hernando,
